BOOM! Guess who my friends? That's right, the Dragon is back! Alright, so I finally have some time to sit down and write, so here I am! Now, first things first; I got a couple of things I need to make you all aware of, so here I go:
First, I have added a "Heads Up!" Section in my profile, in which I'll add important notices and blurbs about my current stories and, in the future, up coming stories. Currently there is already a notice up, (though its probably not so much for this story, but that depends on you people) although it's more for my other story, "Awake Again", but I thought you guys might like to know that.
Secondly, I want to give especial thanks toangel 16 , Kaminari Wolfblood ,GhostRvB ,Darkly Dreaming Darling ,TsukiUchiha13 , and Yoshi-Strange . You guys are awesome! Thank you for reviewing so much!
Lastly, PLEASE remember that I love reviews, so Please review the chapter.
Alright, now that that is out of the way, Lets begin the story!
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Chapter 3
Jiraiya, Naruto, and the four members of Gorillaz were walking through the forest on their way towards the small village were Naruto and Jiraiya currently resided, taking their time to talk and exchange information about each other.
"So," Naruto began, "You've never heard of missing-nin? Or shinobi? Not even about the Village hidden in the leaves?"
"Er…no?" 2D answered somewhat awkwardly, shifting the weight of his rather large backpack slightly. It felt odd having a child interrogate you about things that were obviously everyday things for him, and yet you being completely at a loss about what he was going on a bout.
"That's weird." Naruto stated bluntly, "You definitely were moving like a shinobi though, and you clearly have good reflexes."
"Really? Thanks!" 2D answered merrily with a smile, even though he still didn't understand what a shinobi was, though it sounded like a good thing from the way the blond said it. The kid might have landed him a good kick on the head earlier, but he was certainly very friendly when he wasn't trying to kill you.
"So, " Nartuo began excitedly, "Where are you from? How did you learn to move like that? Why are your eyes so weird, and the big guy has funny eyes to, he reminds me of the Hyuga yah know? Oh! And him! Is he really green or did he paint his own skin? And-?"
"NARUTO!" Jiraiya cut him off, "Give them room to breathe, you brat! You can't just be off and firing questions like that to someone who you just attacked like you did."
Naruto visibly flinched at the mention of the attack. Now that he was getting to know them, he realized that they really weren't bad…. Well, he wasn't sure about the green one, but the other three seemed like really nice people. Worst of all, they weren't even ninja! If they had been anyone else, this could have sparked a definitely troublesome incident for him and Jiraiya. A ninja attacking an innocent civilian for no reason could be severely punished by law in most, if not all, the elemental nations.
"Sorry…" Naruto apologized a bit crestfallen.
"No problem. Right Noods?" 2D replied.
"Hmm?" Noodle answered, "Oh, yeah, sure. No problem."
"So," Murdoc interrupted, "Jiraiya, was it?"
"Yes. An you are Mr. Murdoc right?" Jiraiya replied.
"That's right." Murdoc answered, "The blue-haired idiot there is 2D, the purple haired girl is Noodle, and the big one there that is carrying the huge hockey bag is Russel."
"Pleasure to meet you all." Jiraiya said politely. Right now, etiquette and manners were required.
"Yes, well, anyways," Murdoc continued before any one else could reply to Jiraiya's greetings, "Enough with the pleasantries. First things first, do you know were we are?"
"Yes, well, " Jiraiya responded, slightly perturbed by the fact that the man had so quickly disregarded etiquette, but he quickly shrugged it off. For all he knew this was natural in whatever land they were from they came from. "Currently, we are in the Lighting Country, roughly 130 miles from the nearest major city, more or less. Right now we are headed for a small village where my apprentice and me are residing at for the moment.
"I see…" Murdoc answered pensively and for a moment or two, no one talked, before Murdoc's eyes suddenly lit up and a devious grin appeared on his face, "Well, since we literally know nothing of this place, and since you promised to do anything to make it up to us… then I guess we have no choice."
"Pardon?" Jiraiya asked in confussion. What was this guy getting at…? Oh wait… no. No. Nononono! This couldn't really be going where he thought it was going! ... Could it?
"Well its quite simple mate." Murdoc answered as if it was the most natural thing in the world, his grin growing by the second, "You promised to do anything for us, right? And we know nothing about this place. We have no food, no shelter, no job, no nothing. So, here is what's going to happen. YOU are taking us with you, and help us get a job, and train us if necessary, and you will fill us in about this… place."
Jiraiya froze, stopping in mid stride. He was at a loss at what to say to that, his eyes bulging out of his sockets and his mouth agape. Out of all the things that Murdoc could have asked, this was the last thing that he expected. In fact, everyone was looking at him with surprise.
"Hey Mudz!" Russel called out to him, causing everyone to turn to look at him. "Hang on a second there Mudz. We can't ask this man to take care of us permanently. The burden would be pretty large on his income. I agree that we should have him teach us about this place and some skills, but we can't make the man pay for us indefinitely."
-That man is an angel!- Jiraiya thought gratefully, almost crying in thanks for the defense that Russel had offered. Somehow, he managed to contain himself from bursting into tears of joy.
Grumbling, Murdoc glared at Russel, who just stared at him with an impassive but set glare. He shot a quick glance at Noodle and 2D for support, but neither of them responded. Apparently, they were not going to drive the man into bankruptcy. End of the discussion.
Giving an exasperated sigh, Murdoc started up again, "ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! Fine. But he is going to have to teaches how to live here, teach us all he can while he can, and he is going to set us up with a job, help us find a residency appropriate for us, and…AND he will have to exchange information with us. Satisfied now, Russ?"
Russel merely nodded and went back to listening to the conversation, clearly dismissing the glare that Murdoc was giving him as if it was nothing more than a fly that was buzzing by, much to the irritation of Murdoc and the surprise of the Toad Sage. Either the man had balls of steel, or he was much tougher than he seemed…or possibly both.
Turning back towards Jiraiya, Murdoc looked at him evenly for a moment before finally speaking up.
"So de we have a deal then, Jiraiya?"
"Just wait a sec here… Why would I want to exchange information with you? What could you possibly offer me?" Jiraiya asked suspiciously, and with good reason. Any sensible person would be weary of a group of strangers, particularly one that had just appeared out of a billowing cloud of smoke and lightning. Besides, he had the best spy network in the all the elemental nations, the knowledge of several hundred, if not thousands, of jutsu, and he already was keeping his eye on Naruto. What could they possibly offer him?
But much to his annoyance and, to some degree, unsettlement, Murdoc just stared at him for a second blankly, before he began to utter a low chuckle, which soon grew into a full-throated laughter. He laughed a good hard laugh at Jiraiya, something that had not happened to him for easily twenty or thirty some years now.
"Aw man, that was good." Murdoc said once he had settled down enough to talk, wiping a small tear that had escaped his eye from laughing too hard, "Anyways, sorry about that. So, since you ask, allow me to explain. It's really quite simple, but I will lead you a bit before I fully explain what I mean. Lets start here; Do you notice anything odd about us besides our biological features?"
Jiraiya stared at them for a minute, wondering briefly what the green man was getting at but he decided to play along. He stared at the group for a moment or two before he finally came to a conclusion.
"Your clothes." Jiraiya said confidently, "It's like nothing I have ever seen before. The fabric of the pants you are all wearing seems to be tough and malleable, even if somewhat restricting. The shirts you all wear are also quite different than from what I am used to seeing wear normally. The girl, for example, has a stripped shirt of purple and blue, while you are wearing a black shirt with long sleeves."
"Bingo! We have a winner!" Murdoc said overenthusiastically, with a hint of mocking mixed into it, "That's right, out clothes. The pants you see all of us wearing are called 'Jeans'. Normally they are called 'Blue Jeans', since they are blue like the ones the blue-haired face-ache and Noodle are wearing back there but there are other colors, such as the black ones I am wearing right now, or the brown ones that Russel has. Do you know why you have never seen this kind of clothes before?"
Admittedly, Jiraiya was stumped at that question. Usually he was well informed on the usual outfits of the shinobi of all the elemental nations, however, this was the first time he ever saw clothes that resembled the ones they had on. Finally, he gave up trying to figure it out.
"Not a clue."
"Of course you don't! They are not from anywhere in these so called Elemental Nations!" Murdoc said triumphantly. "The fashion that you see on us is much different than what you are used to, but its not all we have to offer. We all know a fair bit about fashion since, after all, it was very closely tied to our previous line of work. Looking good played an important part of our career. The blue haired idiot and the Purple haired girl are particularly artistic and well versed in the arts, including fashion of many types. Now, let me ask you an other thing, have you ever seen anything like… this!"
Murdoc's hand darted in and out from his pocket in a flash, and when he had retrieved his hand from the pocket, he was palming his iPhone. Waving it in front of Jiraiya for a second confirmed that the people from the world the Gorillaz found themselves in had never even imagined anything like it, let alone own anything close to it. The wonder in Jiraiya's eyes was quite clear as Murdoc, with the help of Russel now and then, proceeded explains to him the basic features of it. Even if there was no signal (since there were no Satellites), Jiraiya was more than thoroughly impressed with the little device.
"Prodigious!" Jiraiya breathed out, "This little device holds such amazing power with in it! The amount of seals… No, the amount of technology and techniques to produce a single one of these must be superbly outstanding! Just making one could take years!"
"Yet an other little thing that we have that you don't." Murdoc stated, obviously pleased by the fact that he had impressed Jiraiya, "Technology. This, actually, is not that complicated compared to some other things from where we come from, but it's a fairly intricate piece of technology."
"Do you know how to make those things?" Jiraiya asked curiously.
Murdoc just snorted at that.
"This? HA! I can do much better than this. I could make my own cyborg if I wanted to. The Dullard down there is also great at tinkering with bits and piece of metal. You wouldn't believe what he can do with just some odd bits and ends of metal and wires. He once made a whole set of customized keyboard out of trash he found in a landfill in less than a day. And Russel and Noodle are nothing to sneeze at either. If you want anything to do with vehicles and transportation and repairing, Russel is your guy. He even found a way to pimp out animals, if you know what I mean. And Noodle? Oh she is an excellent interface designer and security system designer, and she can hack into some pretty high tech stuff. So, can we make stuff like this? Oh yes. Yes we can."
Jiraiya hadn't understood half of the terms that Murdoc had used to answer his question, but he had heard what he needed to. They were able to build some of their amazing technology, and that was enough to make them worth their weight in diamonds for ANY of the elemental countries. Getting them on their side would definitely beneficial for the Leaf.
"Oh, and we got just an other thing too." Murdoc said, a smirk gracing his lips once again as he saw Jiraiya's eyes widen slightly. He couldn't blame the man though. From the perspective of Jiraiya, the band members were severely advanced technologically. In the elemental Nations even the device known as "television" was fairly new and only displayed black and white pictures.
Murdoc doubted they even had fire weapons actually, like guns or even black powder muskets, or even anything that required more electricity than a basic pocket calculator. And if his haunch was correct and this man was pretty high up in the important people list, then that would mean that they had already had made themselves very important people, just because they knew how to make this kind of devices. But he needed to guarantee himself and the band a spot near this man, they needed to learn about this new world in order to survive and the best way to do it would be getting this man on their side, he was sure of it.
Jiriaya, for his part, wasn't sure he could take much more excitement than he had already. There was just so much…. Oh, so much Opportunity, just presenting its self to him in a silver platter. First he got to train Naruto personally, something he considered an achievement on its own. But then he found not one nor two nor even just three people that had huge potential for shinobi, if their way of fighting without training was anything to go by, but he had found FOUR. FOUR people that were at least in the low rank chunnin (mid-level ninja) withouttraining, if their actions were anything to go by… except, perhaps, the girl. She seemed to have received some sort of training at some point.
And then, this four people happened to know nothing of the elemental nations, BUT they were potential Blood Limit users and potential allies of the Leaf. Also, they had the ability to advance the Leaf technologically through their inventions, and economically through their fashion for the civilians. Truth be told, it was a bit suspicious that it all seemed to happen so coincidentally, but if they wanted to travel Jiraiya, it would give him an opportunity to study them and gather some information about them. In conclusion, this was a very favourable deal, both for him and the Leaf.
Given all this, it was understandable why he was about to start drooling with just thinking of all the possibilities that these individuals could bring in tow for him, Naruto, and the Village.
"What? What is it? What else do you have to offer?" Jiraiya said, failing to erase all traces of excitement in his voice.
All four band members smiled, and simultaneously said "Music!"
~~0~0~0~~
Jiraiya and Naruto were seated in a room of the village's Music & Entertainment building, a business which revolved around selling instruments and renting out soundproof rooms to teenagers and adults alike where recitals and music practices could be carried out with out having to worry about cranky neighbours or interruptions from their families while they practiced. It was a relatively small locale, with only four practice rooms and the main body of the shop, but it was decent and it had a reputation for respecting costumer privacy.
Jiraiya watched with fascination at the instruments the band pulled out. 2D removed his customized set of keyboards from his backpack, his megaphone and two smallish cubic amplifiers that were at most eight cubic inches each, Noodle unpacked her favourite blue and purple guitar, Murdoc removed his signature Flying V Bass guitar from its own case, and Russel unfolded a foldable electrically powered drum set and an other small amplifier.
While the band members were setting up and Jiriaya was trying to examine the instruments from afar, Naruto let his mind wander for a bit, until it settled on the memory of what he had occurred in the forest not so long ago. He couldn't help it. The memory tugged at his thoughts, forcing him to wonder what sort of spectacle he could expect from the weird people he had found in the forest earlier that day.
Flashback
Jiraiya's face had gone from fascination to puzzlement as soon as the band members said the word "Music". How could that possibly be favourable for him or the Leaf? Admittedly, he would have already agreed to their terms just at the mention of the technology and the possibility of training the four of them to be allied shinobi of the Leaf. The prospect of increased revenue for the Leaf due to fashion was just a bonus, but the fact that the group had stated the word "Music" with so much enthusiasm and conviction… Hell, their eyes seemed to come more alive at the mention of the word. It was as if they had just mentioned a revolutionary idea, or as if they had just revealed a glimpse of a fearsome creature that they alone commanded. Their entire essence seemed to flare up in excitement ever so slightly at the mention of the word, allowing their eyes to becamo a tad more fierce and proud, their composures became more regal, their voices a twinge stronger, and their stride just a dash more confident and powerful.
The change in their guests caused Jiraiya to have a small chill of excitement run down his back. It should be noted that the change in their guests didn't go unnoticed by Naruto either. Though he didn't quite understand why, he definitely felt the spark of excitement crated by their guests inspire him, and his respect and curiosity of them grew in that single instant. Some how, he guessed that whatever the band mates referred to as music was something much more powerful and deep than he had ever imagined. Like his teacher, he felt a shiver of excitement run down his back.
"Music, huh?" Jiraiya finally ventured to comment after a slight pause, "Well, how about you show us what you can do then?"
"Sure, why not?" Murdoc shrugged dismissively, "Lets get going then."
"Pardon?" Jiraiya asked again with puzzlement, "I thought you said you were going to demonstrate?"
"And we are. Why do you think we are going to wards the village?"
"Why can't you perform here?"
"Because we have no electricity."
"So?" Jiraiya commented inquisitively.
"What do you mean so?" Murdoc asked with annoyance as he had a rather short temperament.
"Mudz are you retarded or what?" Russel finally interrupted, "They probably don'tuse electricity to power their instruments like we do. In fact, I would suppose that there aren't any bands in this age yet. They probably have orchestras, operas, and things like that but no rock or punk or electro, or metal, or new age bands or ANYTHING along those lines. All their music is probably classical or the equivalent of that. Perhaps they have Jazz at most, I would suspect."
"Jazz? Punk? Rock? Metal? New age? What's all that?" Naruto jumped in, eager to find out about terms that the newcomers were using. Whatever those things were, the names sounded pretty awesome.
"Are you serious?" Noodle said with a raised eyebrow, which only got her a blank look from Naruto that definitely said "Not a frigging clue."
"Oh, those are just Music styles." 2D said sagely, which was odd, since he was generally the slow one of the band when it came to thinking. Then again, if it was related to music he could be pretty quick mentally.
"There is more than one style?" Naruto asked puzzled.
2D just blinked and Noodle gaped at him. There was no way….no way that Music was actually so limited in this world that people had so few styles that people actually had to ask if there was more than one.
Noodle was the first of the two to be able to articulate words of the, and as such she was the one that asked the question; "Are you joking?"
Naruto just blinked, clearly still confused and trying to understand how there could be more than one style of music, but nonetheless he nodded his head.
As if his nod had physically slapped 2D and Noodle, they snapped his head back to Murdoc and Jiraiya, 2D's face was dead serious for once the first time in…well, ever. It put Murdoc on edge. He had never seen him like this before, and it certainly made him edgy. Especially when, despite the absolute blackness of 2D's eyes, he managed to make it very clear that he was staring very pointedly at Murdoc. Murdoc had never realized that those black eyes could have so much intensity within them.
The shock of this was such that Murdoc could have almost confused 2D for someone else entirely. A serious and demanding 2D was… Unnatural. More so than even the Zombies at KONG. Zombies he knew how to handle, and it was actually quite simple as there were a number of ways to go about it, like cutting the head, incinerating the whole body, a bullet to the brain, melting the entirety of their heads, and so on. But a 2D that all the sudden turned serious and demanding, who also seemed to be even more imposing than Russel due to his height… Now that was one of the few things that he didn't know how to handle.
It didn't help that the usually sweet and caring Noodle was also staring at him like she meant business. This was a look that Murdoc had seen from Noodle before, but it was rare. When she was like this and someone managed to upset her… well… lets just say that there is a reason why one of her nicknames is "Axe Princess".
At any rate, when Murdoc saw all this, it was then that Murdoc discovered something that had eluded him all his life; When someone that is always kind and relaxed suddenly gets serious and angry, they could be scary as hell.
Jiriaya naturally noticed the discomfort of the green skinned man almost immediately, but was forced to dismiss it almost instantly when the tall man and the short girl turned to face him. 2D could stand many things. Beatings, insults, tortures, and a great deal more if needed be. He had a tough body, and he knew it. The fact that he had been hit by a car in the head doing a hundred miles an hour and survived without broken bones was an statement to that, the fact that he was sent flying out of a car at eighty miles an hour and crashed into a the curb of the road and stood up like it was nothing had only reinforced the fact.
However, he could not, and would not, stand for the restriction of music, and neither would Noodle. For both of them there were only three things that they truly had in life; music, Gorillaz, and each other. Noodle was an orphan, and 2D's remaining family, which was only his mother and father, had died a year ago in a blazing inferno that had destroyed their home and twenty-eight other buildings in their neighbourhood, effectively making him an orphan too. Neither of them had anything outside Gorillaz and Music, save each other, and as such the idea of Music being so severely ignored wounded them, insulted them even.
They were going to have to make a few changes around here. BIG changes.
"Take us to the nearest village." 2D commanded Jiraiya. It wasn't a request. It was an order. Something Jiraiya took as an insult for a moment, but after seeing the look in the eyes of both, 2D and Noodle, he nodded. It would do him no good to start an argument here and potentially cause them to turn their back on him and at the same time Konoha. It would be better to take them to the village, which wasn't far now anyways, and then extract the reasons for their actions calmly and with a touch of sensitivity, rather than press them for answers here and now.
"Our instruments of music utilize electricity to operate." Noodle added briskly and resolutely, "Once we get to the village we will show you our music and explain, maybe even show you, different stiles of music."
Jiraiya and Naruto stared at each other for a split of second before they turned on their heels and started walking briskly towards the village, with the band members following right at their heels.
Flashback end
-I wonder what they meant by different styles of music…- Naruto thought idly to himself once he finished reminiscing the event in his mind, a thought that was cut short by a question of the burly man known as Russel.
"Hey, kid."
"Yeah?"
"Can yah help me find an electrical outlet in this room? I need to connect my drums to power them up."
"Drums? What drums?" Naruto asked immediately, his curiosity spiking due to the fact that there were no drums in the room. All that Russel had taken out was a bunch of thick, disk like plates with a rubbery look that were attached to some kind of stand.
"This ones." Russel said simply pointing at the disk like structures.
"But those are -!"
"You'll see kid. Now help me find the plug in." Russel said with a chuckle.
Curious to see what the device did, Naruto eagerly helped the man find an electric outlet. It wasn't long before Naruto found a cord from a lamp (which blended in with the carpet of the place very well), and traced it back to the behind of a simple blue couch that lay against one of the large white and green walls of the room. It was a single outlet with a short extension cord that was connected to a multi plug-connector, which allowed a person to plug up to six different electrical devices into it. Considering the circumstances, that multi-plug extension cord was just what they needed.
"Here it is!" Naruto exclaimed when he finally pushed the couch far enough so that the multi-plug was visible.
"Excellent. Thanks Kid." Russel exclaimed briefly before he reached for the multi-plug and connected his drum set to it. Since the drums were connected to their own portable Amplifier, he only needed to plug that one cord. Noodle proceeded to do the same, taking up another plug in that belonged to her amplifier (which connected to her guitar), and so did Murdoc. Lastly, 2D took up the last plug in (since the sixth was occupied by the lamp Naruto had used to track it down), connecting it to his home-made Keyboards.
"All set?" Murdoc asked 2D, whom proceeded to check the plugs before giving Murdoc the thumbs up.
"Good." Murdoc said briefly, already slipping into his Band-Leader mode as he finished tuning up his guitar. Taking a quick look around the room, Murdoc checked that everyone was done adjusting their instruments before he turned back to look at Jiraiya and Naruto.
"Alright you two," Murdoc addressed the two ninja, "You are about to be the first in this world to hear us, so you better listen closely." Then he turned his head and addressed the band, "What should we start off with? Kids with guns?"
"They don't have guns here Murdoc." Russel said bluntly, "They wouldn't have a clue of what we are talking about."
"Oh Green World?" Noodle peeped out.
"Kind of a depressing first number, don't you think Noodle?" Murdoc asked with a raised eyebrow. "But maybe…."
"Re-Hash?" Russel jumped in.
"It won't make a big enough splash for a first number." Noodle replied.
"Er… How about we do Feel Good Inc.?" 2D said meekly, unsure if it would be appropriate to butt into the conversation so unceremoniously. As quiet as he had been, the question had caused all heads in the room to snap towards him.
"Feel Good Inc. eh?" Murdoc asked, rubbing his jaw as he thought it over for a second. "That's… that's actually not a bad idea."
"I agree with Mudz." Russel stated, "I think Dell will be happy to help."
"Dell?" Naruto asked immediately, "Who's Dell?"
"Oh, well he is Russel's dead friend." 2D said matter-of-factly.
Naruto and Jiraiya blinked once in confusion. Dead? How could a dead Person help them?
"How?" Jiraiya and Naruto asked simultaneously.
"He lives in his head." 2D said with out much regard, as if it was the most common thing in the world. An statement that only made Naruto and Jiraiya look at each other with raised eyebrow.
"That's not possible." Jiraiya said bluntly.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that if I were you." Murdoc said, an impish smile playing upon his lips. "With us, anything is possible."
For some reason, the way Murdoc said it, coupled with the way the rest of the band seemed to easily and yet wordlessly agree with him, caused Jiraiya and Naruto to believe those words as if it was a rock solid fact.
"…Except becoming God." 2D supplied.
"As much as Murdoc would wish it was otherwise." Noodle finished for him.
"Ah, bugger off you two!" Murdoc grumbled.
"And we could show them 19-2000, and some of those new ones that have been working on, you know. I think Stylo, Melancholy Hill, and Rhynestone Eyes, would be a good follow up." 2D said as he returned to the matter at hand.
"Yeah!" Noodle agreed, "And we can do El Mañana and Every Planet We reach is Dead."
"And Re-Hash and5/4." Russel added.
"Alright, enough gibberish and nonsense." Murdoc said, ending the conversation before they got completely side tracked. "We'll do this then. First well do Feel Good Inc., Then, we'll do Stylo, and after that we do El Mañana. Then we follow that up with Melancholy Hill and then we finish it off with 5/4. Sounds good?" Receiving a nod from each of the band members, Murdoc grunted in satisfaction and began the count down. "Ready? One," -Murdoc turned on his amp, as did Noodle and Russel and 2D- "Two," –Murdoc and the rest set the volume to 8 (the max is 10)—"Three," –Murdoc lifted his strumming hand as did Noodle, Russel lifted his hands above his head, and 2D sat down on a chair with his head casted downwards as he grabbed hold of his megaphone—"GO!"
And the show began.
BAM! Chapter Done. Sorry if it wasn't as eventful as everyone wanted it to be, but I think it came out alright didn't it?
Sweet! Alright, so PLEASEREAD ANDREVIEW
Freedragon, logging out!
